


I Would Surely Patch That Tear

by DefaltManifesto



Series: 30 Day Song Lyric Challenge [9]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Emotionally Repressed, Friendship, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Heart-to-Heart, Male Friendship, Miscommunication
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-10
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2019-02-12 19:11:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12966423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DefaltManifesto/pseuds/DefaltManifesto
Summary: “You have an odd way of showing you care,” Stefan says.“You live in desert,” Mordecai says as he sits down beside him. “Hard to find you. You find me any time in Gallia but you never come.”





	I Would Surely Patch That Tear

**Author's Note:**

> So I didn't listen to today's song before I started writing it because I had a good idea from the get go. I was pretty worried I botched it but then listened to the song and was like: okay I feel slightly better now lol
> 
> Today's fic is based on the following lyric from Upsets and Downfalls by The Ready Set:
> 
> "If there's something I could say/to re-stitch the ties that I let fray/Then I would surely patch that tear"
> 
> This can be read as pre-slash or just friends so you decide lol

Mordecai is ignoring him. It’s fair treatment, but Stefan finds it annoying regardless. He hadn’t reached out to Mordecai after the first war, but Mordecai hadn’t either, so as far as Stefan was concerned they were even. Besides, being ignored by Laguz was par for the course. He’d hoped Mordecai was different. It’s not surprising that he’s just the same as the rest. Still, it makes fighting hour after hour outside Ashera’s tower more than a little unpleasant.

"How long are they going to take?” Zihark asks between gasps for breath.

If he’s returned, it means Stefan’s break is almost over and he’ll have to return to the front lines soon.

“Could be hours or days. Depends on how bad the fighting is inside,” he says. He pushes himself upright. “Well, you rest up. I’ll pick up your slack.”

“Be careful out there,” Zihark says. “They’re stronger than they were on the way here.”

Stefan waves a hand back at him and continues on his way.

 

-.-

 

Zihark was certainly not kidding. Maybe it’s fatigue, or maybe it’s that the Goddess is sending stronger people as she nears her own end in hopes to prolong the inevitable. Either way, it sucks. After his third straight hour on the battlefield, his vision starts to get hazy. He blocks a blow from an axe and spins on his heel to dodge a lance before ducking into a roll to cross blades with another sword master. It’s easy to fell him, but his body is too slow to react to the lance that plunges into him from behind.

He grits his teeth and kicks back before spinning and lopping his attacker’s head off. It’s too late if the blood staining the snow is anything to go by and the next moment he finds himself on his knees as the pain starts to register. What a piss poor way to go out. He should have waited this nonsense out in the desert. After all, there was no one here to risk his life for, not really.

A roar echoes around the battlefield. The last thing Stefan sees is a blue tiger tearing across the field towards him.

 

-.-

 

He wakes up to an ache in his side with a blue tiger sleeping beside him. For a moment, he ignores that and pokes his side. It sends shooting pains through his body so it’s definitely more of a patch job than a proper healing, but then the healers can’t afford more than that at this stage. He sits up and grits his teeth through the pain. Zihark and Edward will need to be relieved soon.

The tiger besides him growls low in his throat and Stefan pauses in his effort to stand.

“Oh what do you care?” he snaps. “All you’ve done is ignore me like the rest of your Tribe.”

He gets to his feet on adrenaline alone only to stumble and fall. Mordecai transforms back into his human form and catches him just in time, manhandling him back down onto his cot. Stefan glares at him.

“I did not mean to make you think I hated you for your Brand,” Mordecai says. “But I care for you. I will not see you die for returning to the battle too soon.

“You have an odd way of showing you care,” Stefan says.

“You live in desert,” Mordecai says as he sits down beside him. “Hard to find you. You find me any time in Gallia but you never come.”

That’s a fair assessment. Stefan closes his eyes. “Perhaps I’ve misjudged the situation.”

“Mmm…”

“I haven’t had…” _a friend_ “…a companion in quite some time. Perhaps I’ve forgotten the proper way to interact with people,” he says. “But I…I enjoyed our conversations and should we be favored in this conflict, I would enjoy having more of them with you.”

When he looks at Mordecai, he’s smiling broadly down at Stefan.

“I would like that as well. No hiding.”

Stefan reaches out and grabs Mordecai’s hand. “No hiding.”

He wants to though. It’s been decades since he last interacted with people with any degree of consistency, determined to be alone rather than open himself up to the rejection of his early years. Still…it had been more than a little unfair to treat Mordecai the way he did. After all, Mordecai had treated him with nothing but kindness when the rest of his kind treated him as less than dirt.

“I don’t quite know how to stop sabotaging this friendship,” Stefan says. “I’m not sure it’s fair to have you put up with that.”

"That is not for you to decide,” Mordecai says. “Stefan…”

Stefan looks up, flushing at the sincerity in Mordecai’s eyes as he holds Stefan’s hands between his own. “What?”

“You are special to me,” Mordecai says. “You only need apologize.”

“I’m sorry,” Stefan says. “For abandoning you. And I’m sorry for whatever I do in the future to try and make you leave. I’ll do my best though.”

“Why you come fight with us?” Mordecai asks.

Stefan frowns at the abrupt change in topic. “That girl, she’s also Branded. I was curious, and I suppose bored to some extent. It’s awful lonesome in the desert.”

Mordecai presses their foreheads together. “Not alone anymore. You have me. No more desert.”

“I quite like the desert,” Stefan says as he stares into Mordecai’s eyes. “But I don’t have to spend all my time there I suppose, not right now. Perhaps after…” He pulls away, not having the strength to face rejection straight on. “We could travel for a bit.”

“Hmm, I’d like that. Never done before,” Mordecai says. “Need to rebuild first but after…”

Stefan sighs and leans into Mordecai’s warm weight as the satisfaction of acceptance bleeds through him. He could sabotage himself all he liked. At the end of the day, he wanted to be Mordecai’s friend more than anything. “Thank you.”

“Of course. Now rest. Let me do fighting,” Mordecai says.

“I’ll be out there soon enough,” Stefan says. “But I’m counting on you to have my back.”

"Of course.”


End file.
